Venison Ham? Need help with recipe for curing... Please Help...

[Fiore3]

I killed another deer today for the DE antlerless opener.. A tasty little 65 to 70 pound deer.. A friend of mine hade some venison ham made from a butcher and I loved it and want to try and make my own.. I have access to all of the tools needed to process the ham ( cold box and smoker) but I do not have any curing recipes with time to cure and ingrediants needed for making the ham... Any help would be appreciated...

Thanks
fiore

[Cowboy]

Brine Recipe
Water................................1 gallon
Pickling Salt.......................1 cup
Sugar................................1/4 cup
Prague #1 (Cure)...............1/3 cup
Pickling Spice....................1 tsp
Cloves...............................1/2 tsp

The brine should be cooled to around 40F before the meat is placed in it. It should also be kept near that temperature during the brining period so that is another reason to make small hams.... you can find space in the fridge. Do not let it get below about 38F though because the cure ceases to function around there. Monitor the brine temp with a thermometer and just remove it for a while if it gets too cold.

The brining time is mainly a question of personal taste. The longer it stays in the brine, the saltier it gets. I find 4 days about right.

Smoke away, cold smoking is best.

I find that the hams should be broken down into the 3 individual pieces for processing.

[Dave Sikorski]

How do you break them down? 3 equal parts from hip to shank??

-D

[Fiore3]

Thanks cowboy....

[Cowboy]

Dave, I bone the hams off while hanging, slice free from the hip then on the inside fiollow the bone out towards the leg and just filet the hamd off the bone. When you get the whole ham off lay it out and trim the fat and sinues away so you have 95%+ pure meat. I brine the whole ham in a bucket then pin it back into a whole ham for smoking. If I want to speed things up I break the ham down into the 3 small muscles that it is made of and do them individually.
Process dryed beef the same way, different brine and no smoke for the drying.